Milton Country Park Osprey Project

Milton Country Park is a 95-acre open access park just outside Cambridge that offers a varied natural habitat of woodland, lakes, and grassland. The park is managed as a community green space for outdoor recreation, sport, and activities, but also to support and enhance biodiversity and the natural environment. Visitors to the park can enjoy an abundance of wildlife throughout the year. Many rare or threatened species have been recorded inhabiting the park over recent years, including turtle doves, water voles, otters, and common terns.

For 7 weeks this autumn, Milton Country Park was home to a Eurasian Osprey (Pandion haliaetus). Ospreys are an Amber listed species in the UK, having previously been declared extinct as a breeding bird in Britain in the early 1900s. Thanks to a successful reintroduction programme initiated in the 1950s, Ospreys now have established breeding populations in parts of Scotland, England and Wales. However, there are still no breeding Osprey in Cambridgeshire, and the closest known breeding birds are at Rutland Water 70 km away.

Photo credit: Jon Heath

There are two large lakes at Milton Country Park that are stocked with a range of fish species that form the diet of Ospreys. Across the 7 weeks , 'our' Osprey was observed feeding on these fish regularly. Therefore, we know that the lakes at Milton Country Park form a suitable habitat for the Osprey.

Photo credit: Jon Heath

The Osprey at Milton Country Park has left the park to continue its annual migration to West Africa. We now hope to raise funds to install an Osprey breeding platform in the park , ready for when the Ospreys migrate back to the UK in Spring 2025. We are teaming up with Darren Moore of 'Friends of the Osprey' to ensure that the nesting platform will be installed in the most ideal location. Darren has installed around 40 nesting platforms across Wales, and now has decades of experience.

The funds raised here will be directly used to purchase the materials and tools necessary for installing and maintaining the nesting platform, as well as a 4G wildlife camera to help us monitor and promote the platform's success. These capital costs will include:

-A Reolink solar 4g wildlife camera

-A  10m telegraph pole

-Timber and wire mesh to create the nesting platform

-A 10m ladder

-Tools for maintaining the platform - e.g. repairs and trimming back vegetation

-Hiring a local builder and a digger to erect and secure the nesting platform in the ground